WSI Story: Pagans Hate Advertising

As we move into the future of Witch School, we are always looking for ways to improve. It is because of this desire to provide education, not in the short term but on a lifetime basis, that we decided becoming a 501c3 Religious Education organization was the best option. The fact is that Witch School as it was built, as a commercial site, in untenable and simply not sustainable.

Why is Witch School no longer viable as a commercial operation? Because Pagans hate advertising. Website models that create a lot of traffic and eyeballs by offering free memberships, fund themselves through advertising. All large scale popular sites, including Facebook, Google, Youtube, etc., are funded by advertising. It was expected that Witch School would find a similar source, and with our traffic, we should have pulled in tens of thousands in monthly advertising. But Witches do not like advertising. They will only marginally support it, won’t click through, and won’t buy from it. We at Witch School saw that the click-through rates for the small amount of advertising we had showed Pagans are 800% less likely to click ads, and 1600% less likely to buy something from ads. Simply put, Pagans and mainstream advertising don’t mix, and with click-through rates so low, no quality advertiser will ever buy at a reasonable price. Even Llewellyn Worldwide Publishing turned us down. So Witch School as a freemium site which would depend on advertising, never got that income, and has lived solely on memberships.

$49.99 Lifetime Membership: http://bit.ly/wslifetime50 If you look deeply at the Pagan community, you will see few large scale magazines, television shows, corporate sponsored events, or anything else that is advertising driven. Of course, the common belief is that they are discriminating against us. The real truth is we are discriminating against them, and simply won’t buy in. Unfortunately, media driven projects like websites, newspapers, television etc., require advertising. Witch School International soon went beyond being an educational site. It is now a television station, radio station, magazine, and newspaper. And we have always paid for these resources from lifetime and supporting memberships and never by advertising. We know now that this is unsustainable.

This is why memberships, including Lifetime memberships, are so important. They are the only way we have had to finance this site over the past 15 years of service. It has been through support of our lifetime members and supporting members that we have survived at all, much less expanded to the largest Wiccan communication network in the world. This network was not built by advertisers, it was built by us for us. It is a reflection of who we are.

So with a heavy heart, I began to see survivability and the ability to thrive was a path that would leave me behind. But I wanted to personally assure a lifetime of education for all of our members. We had to be a Not-for-profit legally, so that we could tap into donations, volunteers, and community based funding. It took me three years to make the transition, to find the right people, to begin this new phase. I knew it simply was not me that would lead this effort. The Correllian Education Ministry is being led by amazing visionary members, and we will discuss that shortly. But right now, we are working to assure that a long term future is not only possible but expected, as we have every day since Nov. 11th 1998.

So please consider supporting through memberships, and right now we can use you help. Lifetime Memberships are on sale to help cover transition costs. As I said, it is the best way to support Witch School’s mission of a Lifetime of education.